Skiing and Snowboarding

Design Your Own Avy Shovel

Brooks Range, purveyor of fine snow safety gear, has introduced a BYO--build your own--program so that skiers, sled heads, and anyone else heading into avy country can be prepared with a tool that fits their preferences.

You choose the shaft, edge, blade, handle, and color, and then Brooks delivers it to you door. Any shovel you order will be made from Brooks' bomb-proof, lightweight, heat-treated aluminum, and will feature a telescoping handle and a flat shovel blade top that can take repeated stomping into frozen snow. Each shovel weighs around two pounds. Your friends will be wowed when you break out a chartreuse serrated edge blade with your name on it, right before building a snow recliner between backcountry runs. Available now, $55 (add $3 if you want it engraved), brooks-range.com